Also, as he ate with them, he charged them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father promised ??"for what you have heard me speak of," said he;

On saying this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him out of sight.

who said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven? This Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back, just as you have seen him depart to heaven."

"My brothers," said he, "it had to be fulfilled, that scripture which the holy Spirit uttered beforehand by the lips of David with regard to Judas who acted as guide to those who arrested Jesus.

All were amazed and astonished. "Are these not all Galileans," they said, "who are speaking?

They were all amazed and quite at a loss. "What can it mean?" they said to one another.

(He was a prophet; he knew God had sworn an oath to him that he would seat one of his descendants on his throne;

so he spoke with a prevision of the resurrection of the Christ, when he said that he was not forsaken in the grave nor did his flesh suffer decay.

For it was not David who ascended to heaven; David says, The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand,

When they heard this, it went straight to their hearts; they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what are we to do?"

"Repent," said Peter, "let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins; then you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit.

So those who accepted what he said were baptized; about three thousand souls were brought in, that day.

Peter looked at him steadily, as did John, and said, "Look at us."

But Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but I will give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, [get up and] walk!"

and when they recognized this was the very man who used to sit and beg at the Gate Beautiful, they were lost in awe and amazement at what had happened to him.

But when Peter saw this, he said to the people, "Men of Israel, why are you surprised at this? Why do you stare at us, as if we had made him walk by any power or piety of ours?

for Moses said, The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brotherhood, as he raised me: you must listen to whatever he may tell you.

Now you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers when he said to Abraham, all families on earth shall be blessed in your offspring.

Then Peter, filled with the holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers of the people and elders of Israel,

"What are we to do with these men?" they said. "It is plain to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem that a miracle has admittedly been worked by them. That we cannot deny.

On being released they went to their friends and related what the high priests and elders had said;

who said to our fathers by the holy Spirit through the lips of thy servant David, Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples vainly conspire?

"Ananias," said Peter, "why has Satan filled your heart and made you cheat the holy Spirit by appropriating some of the money paid for the land?

"Tell me," said Peter, "did you only sell the land for such and such a sum?" "Yes," she said, "that was all we sold it for."

Peter said to her, "How could you arrange to put the Lord's Spirit to the proof? Listen, there are the footsteps of the men who have buried your husband! They are at the door, and they will carry you out as well."

Then he said, "Men of Israel, take care what you do about these men.

So the twelve summoned the main body of the disciples and said: "It is not desirable that we should drop preaching the word of God and attend to meals.

Said the high priest, "Is this true?"

"Listen, brothers and fathers," said Stephen. "The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was still in Mesopotamia, before ever he stayed in Haran,

and said to him, 'Leave your land and your countrymen and come to whatever land I show you.'

What God said was this: 'His offspring will sojourn in a foreign land, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.

But,' said God, 'I will pass sentence on the nation that has made them slaves, and then they will get away to worship me in this Place.'

Next day he came upon two of them fighting and tried to pacify them. "You are brothers!" he said, "why injure one another?"

When Moses saw this, he marvelled at the sight; and as he went up to look at it, the voice of the Lord said,

But the Lord said to him, 'Take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is sacred ground.

The Moses they refused, when they said, 'Who made you ruler and umpire?' ??that was the very man whom God sent to rule and to redeem them, by aid of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush.

"Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of man standing at God's right hand!"

And the crowds attended like one man to what was said by Philip, listening to him and watching the miracles he performed.

Peter said to him, "Death to you and your money, for dreaming you could buy the gift of God!

You come in for no share or lot in this religion. Your heart is all wrong in the sight of God.

Simon replied, "Beseech the Lord for me! Pray that nothing you have said may befall me!"

but an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go south, along the road from Jerusalem to Gaza" (the desert-route).

The Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join that chariot."

he asked. "Why, how can I possibly understand it," said the eunuch, "unless some one puts me on the right track?" And he begged Philip to get up and sit beside him.

So the eunuch said to Philip, "Pray, who is the prophet speaking about? Is it himself or someone else?"

As they travelled on, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Here is water! What is to prevent me being baptized?"

When they came up from the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch lost sight of him. He went on his way rejoicing,

"Who are you?" he asked. "I am Jesus," he said, "and you persecute me.

Now there was a disciple called Ananias in Damascus. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." He said, "I am here, Lord."

And the Lord said to him, "Go away to the street called 'The Straight Street,' and ask at the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus called Saul. He is praying at this very moment,

and he has seen a man called Ananias enter and lay his hands upon him to bring back his sight."

But the Lord said to him, "Go; I have chosen him to be the means of bringing my Name before the Gentiles and their kings as well as before the sons of Israel.

So Ananias went off and entered the house, laying his hands on him with these words, "Saul, my brother, I have been sent by the Lord, by Jesus who appeared to you on the road, to let you regain your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit."

In a moment something like scales fell from his eyes, he regained his sight, got up and was baptized.

He lost no time in preaching throughout the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God ??21 to the amazement of all his hearers, who said, "Is this not the man who in Jerusalem harried those who invoke this Name, the man who came here for the express purpose of carrying them all in chains to the high priests?"

"Aeneas," said Peter, "Jesus the Christ cures you! Get up and make your bed!" He got up at once.

Peter put them all outside; then he knelt down and prayed, and turning to the body said, "Tabitha, rise." She opened her eyes, and on seeing Peter she sat up.

But Peter said, "No, no, my Lord; I have never eaten anything common or unclean."

So the Spirit said to Peter, who was pondering over the vision, "There are three men looking for you!

They said, "Cornelius, a captain, a good man who reverences God and enjoys a good reputation among the whole Jewish nation, was instructed by a holy angel to send for you to his house and to listen to what you had to say."

To them Peter said, "You know yourselves it is illegal for a Jew to join or accost anyone belonging to another nation; but God has shown me that I must not call any man common or unclean,

"Three days ago," said Cornelius, "at this very hour I was praying in my house at three o'clock in the afternoon, when a man stood before me in shining dress,

Then Peter opened his lips and said, "I see quite plainly that God has no favourites,

While Peter was still speaking, the holy Spirit fell upon all who listened to what he said.

"You went into the houses of the uncircumcised," they said, "and you ate with them!"

"I was in the town of Joppa at prayer," he said, "and in a trance I saw a vision ??a vessel coming down like a huge sheet lowered from heaven by the four corners. It came down to me,

I said, 'No, no, my Lord; nothing common or unclean has ever passed my lips.'

But an angel of the Lord flashed on him, and a light shone in the cell; striking Peter on the side he woke him, saying, "Quick, get up!" The fetters dropped from his hands,

and the angel said to him, "Gird yourself and put on your sandals." He did so. Then said the angel, "Put on your coat and follow me."

Then Peter came to his senses and said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were anticipating."

"You are mad," they said. But she insisted it was true. "It is his angel," they said.

He beckoned to them to keep quiet and then described to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. "Report this to James," he said, "and to the brothers." And off he went to another place.

On a stated day Herod arrayed himself in royal robes, took his seat on the dais, and proceeded to harangue them.

As they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the holy Spirit said, "Come! set me apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all good, full of all craft and all cunning, will you never stop diverting the straight paths of the Lord?

but they passed on from Perga and arrived at Pisidian Antioch. On the sabbath they went into the synagogue and sat down;

So Paul stood up and motioning with his hand said, "Listen, men of Israel and you who reverence God.

And as John was closing his career he said, 'What do you take me for? I am not He; no, he is coming after me, and I am not fit to untie the sandals on his feet!'

And as a proof that he has raised him from the dead, never to return to decay, he has said this: I will give you the holiness of David that fails not.

But when the Jews saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy; they began to contradict what Paul said and to abuse him.

So Paul and Barnabas spoke out fearlessly. "The word of God," they said, "had to be spoken to you in the first instance; but as you push it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, well, here we turn to the Gentiles!

For these are the Lord's orders to us: I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the end of the earth."

said in a loud voice, "Stand erect on your feet." Up he jumped and began to walk.

But some of the believers who belonged to the Pharisaic party got up and said, "Gentiles must be circumcised and told to observe the law of Moses."

and a keen controversy sprang up; but Peter rose and said to them, "Brothers, you are well aware that from the earliest days God chose that of you all I should be the one by whom the Gentiles were to hear the word of the gospel and believe it.

When they had finished speaking, James spoke. "Brothers," he said, "listen to me.

Some days later, Paul said to Barnabas, "Come and let us go back to visit the brothers in every town where we have proclaimed the word of the Lord. Let us see how they are doing."

On the sabbath we went outside the gate to the bank of the river, where as usual there was a place of prayer; we sat down and talked to the women who had gathered.

Among the listeners there was a woman called Lydia, a dealer in purple who belonged to the town of Thyatira. She reverenced God, and the Lord opened her heart to attend to what Paul said.

When she was baptized, along with her household, she begged us, saying, "If you are convinced I am a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house." She compelled us to come.

and brought them out (after securing the other prisoners). "Sirs," he said, "what must I do to be saved?"

"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," they said, "and then you will be saved, you and your household as well."

The jailer repeated this to Paul. "The praetors," he said, "have sent to release you. So come out and go in peace?"

But the Jews were aroused to jealousy; they got hold of some idle rascals to form a mob and set the town in an uproar; they attacked Jason's house in the endeavour to bring them out before the populace,

where the people were more amenable than at Thessalonica; they were perfectly ready to receive the Word and made a daily study of the scriptures to see if it was really as Paul said.

While Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his soul was irritated at the sight of the idols that filled the city.

Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also came across him. Some said, "Whatever does the fellow mean with his scraps of learning'?" Others said, "He looks like a herald of foreign deities" (this was because he preached 'Jesus' and 'the Resurrection').

So Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe at every turn that you are a most religious people.

for it is in him that we live and move and exist ??as some of your own poets have said, 'We too belong to His race.'

But on hearing of a 'resurrection of dead men,' some sneered, while others said, "We will hear you again on that subject."